The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center Institute for Ethics is directed by Anne Simpson, M.D. It was founded in 2002 under the leadership of Laura Weiss Roberts, M.D. The institute serves as a resource for ethics in health care and research at the institutional, local, regional, national and international levels. The Institute for Ethics has three domains of activity: Education, Service, and Scholarship.
The Institute for Ethics brings together faculty, staff, students and community colleagues who are interested in ethical issues affecting health, health care, and health-related research. The aim of the Institute is to bring together the resources of the University in an effort to help improve the lives and health of New Mexicans. The Institute for Ethics will develop innovative educational programs, clinical services, and valuable knowledge that we hope will translate to a meaningful difference in our community.
The Institute for Ethics maintains a focus on special populations, including people who are seriously physically and mentally ill children, elders, ethnic minorities and underserved groups. By giving our careful attention to special populations, we will be able to develop clinical and research practices and policies that are more respectful, attuned, and responsive to their needs. Through such work, we will also be able to help health care professionals, researchers, and policy-makers who are struggling with similar issues across diverse communities.
According to Dr. David
Bennahum, Emeritus Professor of Internal Medicine at the UNM
School of Medicine and Scholar in Residence at the Institute for
Ethics says that the Institute for Ethics can have a significant
impact on the health care of patients, the training of health
professionals, and research in the Health Sciences. "We will face
difficult issues on how to protect the privacy and confidentiality
of patients, how to train research scientists and clinicians to be
sensitive to the fears and needs of people of different cultures,
and how to encourage students to acquire and use a knowledge of
biomedical ethics. The coordination of the efforts of the members of
the Biomedical Ethics Committee and the Institute, as well as
researchers and teachers in the health sciences is vitally important
in this age of complex medical technology, knowledge discovered
about the human genome, and the ever present threat of biological
terrorism."
The Institute benefits from the expertise of faculty and staff with varied educational foundations, clinical training, teaching experiences, and ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Our faculty, staff and trainees have expertise in medicine, social and clinical psychology, philosophy, public health, theology, scientific design, cross-cultural studies, sociology, education, and qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Inquiries about the Institute for Ethics can be mailed to:
Institute for Ethics
located at 917 Vassar, NE
MSC11 6095
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
(505) 272-4566
(505) 272-4569 FAX
ethics@salud.unm.edu
